Persona ProfileA persona is a fictional character created as a proxy for a target audience

For your first course activity you're going to create a persona profile of YOU. Your persona profile sharable link posted in "comment section" of dropbox and downloadable PDF version in the dropbox are due Wednesday, September 5 by 11:59 p.m. This activity is worth a total of 25 points.

For this activity we'll explore what a persona profile is, why it's an effective human-centered design research method, and finally how to create a visual persona profile.

Sharing our persona profiles is also a great way to kick of the semester and get to know each other better.

But first, let's understand what human-centered design is and why it is so critical to understand and apply in the design research process. We will dive much deeper into human-centered design and research methods throughout the semester. But let's start with a simple overview.

We'll learn much more about the The LUMA System of Innovation later in the semester, but you can learn more about LUMA now.

So one human-centered design research method for UNDERSTANDING people and systems is the PERSONA PROFILE: an informed summary of the mindset, needs, and goals typically held by key stakeholders.

User Personas represent real, living and breathing people who will engage with your product. While individuals featured on a persona are technically hypothetical, the information on the document should not be hypothetical. All sections must be completed based on fact, hard data, and research.

Finance Manager Melonie. Landscaper Larry. Caregiver Cassy. These names refer to personas: fictional, generalized representations of real people. By grouping people into persona categories, it's much easier for marketers, product designers, salespeople, and services people to tailor their content, messaging, product development, and services to different groups of people.

You might have heard personas referred to more specifically as "buyer personas" or "marketing personas" by marketers, or even "customer personas" or "user personas" by product designers. Regardless who in your business is using them, it's important to remember that personas aren't just for marketing. They're not one of those one-off exercises your marketing team does, only to promptly forget about them several weeks later. Implement your personas across your entire funnel strategy, and let everyone in the organization know who they are -- from Marketing to Product to Sales to Services.

Check out the persona profile description and benefits defined by the LUMA

The following is a quick guide and helpful hints for creating a persona profile.

Your Activity Assignment

You're going to create a persona profile of yourself using a cool, free web-based tool called Xtensio.

Start by checking out Xtensio and setting up a free account with your email address and a password.